The Territorial Museum of Lake Bolsena is located inside the Rocca (Fortress) Monaldeschi and is accessed by crossing a sort of 'drawbridge' from which you access the inner courtyard of the Rocca. Here are placed in order a series of tombstones and funerary stones of Roman times and you can access the towers from which you have an incredible view of the lake and the entire territory.
The museum is divided into three floors and tells the whole story of man that took place along the shores of the lake from prehistoric times to the Etruscan and Roman periods.
A very interesting story is of the 'Gran Carro', the village that was found in the waters of Lake Bolsena in 1959. Another is the famous ceramic 'Throne of Panthers' which was rebuilt from over 150 fragments found in the Volsinii House of Paintings.
It is also called Dionysian throne because it was used in orgiastic rites in honour of Bacchus and was destroyed by order of the Roman Senate in 186 BC when these rites were forbidden in all the Italic territory outside the temples. An attempt to moralise the failed society and a marble sarcophagus at the entrance to the museum still shows such rites.
The visit ends with an exhibition of medieval pottery found in the fortress and a section dedicated to the lake, its fauna and fishing over the centuries.
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